SALVATORE

About the Author

William Somerset Maugham was a formidable English writer whose mastery over the short
story has placed his writing in the topmost rungs of the modern English canon. A British
novelist, playwright and short story writer par excellence, Maugham is known for his
economy of words and quick paced, direct narratives.

He practiced medicine for some years which brought him in close contact with the English
working class. These experiences would later transpire in his first novel ‘Liza of Lambeth’
which proved vital in helping him switch to literature. He even worked as a spy for the British
government and was assigned a mission in Russia to offset the Russian Revolution.

As a writer Maugham had a impressive understanding of human nature and a clear, concise
style marked by an remarkable economy of words which is seen in the short story Salvatore.

Analysis

Salvatore, the lifestory of a man from his adolescence to fatherhood which covers different
aspects of his life as a kid, his relationship with his brothers, his first love, his duty in the
navy, his experiences abroad, his unfortunate breakup, his marriage, his role as a father and
the breadwinner of the family – all account for no more than a couple of paragraphs..

The story “Salvatore” by William Somerset Maugham begins abruptly with “I wonder if I can
do it.” The writer is doubtful whether he can hold our attention for a few pages when he
narrates the story of Salvatore.

The story is written in third person narrative technique. The author just tells the readers the
story of a fisherman named Salvatore who lived in an Italian Island.

The story is actually a biographical sketch of the protagonist (main character) Salvatore in
chronological order. The story begins when he was a boy of fifteen and ends when he is a
middle-aged man with two children and a wife living peacefully a hard life of a common
fisherman.

There is nothing extraordinary in Salvatore’s life except that he catches a disease

rheumatism from which he never completely recovers and the breakup of the engagement
with the girl he had loved. But as a curious reader you may expect a turn of events, a twist in
the tale, towards the end of the story. But that never happens. The ending of the story may
well dishearten some readers, and at the same time may amuse others. The lack of a
complex plot and a twist that the readers are used to see most of the time makes us wonder
if it has really been a story or just an accumulation of events.
The main theme of the story, as the writer Maugham himself clarifies at the very end, has
been the portrayal of a quality in Salvatore’s life — “Goodness, just goodness”. Hence, the
story, though apparently seems to be mere narration of events in a young man’s life, is
actually a masterly character sketch of the man.

If there is anything mentionable about the style, the beginning and the ending of the story
are somewhat uncommon, as the author directly communicates to the readers to say that he
just tried to see whether he could hold our attention for a while as he went on to draw the
portrait of a man named Salvatore.

Moreover, the writer has not used a lot of direct speeches as we see in most short stories.
He rather relies on his own narration of the events. In many places, the author avoids details
to keep the story short.

Use of similes in ‘wept like a child’, ‘thin as a rail’, ‘enormous hands, like legs of mutton’,
‘they were like flowers’ etc. are rather common in the story.

Character Sketch

Salvatore is a fifteen-year-old boy, brown-coloured in complexion, endowed with sturdy built-

up, graceful manner and nonchalant eyes. He has possessed an effortless ease in the art of
swimming. Quite suitably the writer has depicted him as a frolicsome boy belonging to a
fishing community.

… he would throw himself into the deep water with a cry of delight.

He is full of affection for his two brothers taking care of them as a caring nursemaid. The boy
is, thus, grown up in the lap of nature.

Many a times, there are references to the behaviour of a mute dog, to explain the
submissive reaction of the protagonist.

Salvatore is a short story by Somerset Maugham that has the ability to charm the reader
through its simplicity. No clever plots, no suspense or reliance on wit. The beauty of
Salvatore lies in its simplicity and the simplicity derives its integrity through the masterful
characterization of the protagonist. The narrator traces the life of a certain ‘Salvatore’ and
shows us the goodness of this man playing out in the different aspects of his less than
perfect life.

By the time we finish reading the story, we find that our narrator has indeed been successful
in arresting “the readers attention for a few pages“. This is not only because the quality of
“Goodness” itself is a commendable virtue but also (and more importantly) through
Maugham’s skillful representation of the quality’s presence in protagonist’s life. The account
of Salvatore is related in the third person by an observant speaker who adopts a
conversational tone.

At first glance, it may seem that it is just “goodness” that the narrator seeks to explore
through his sketch of Salvatore. However, on a closer look, we discover that the word
‘goodness’ carries with it a world of various qualities that manifest themselves along the
narrative as the life of Salvatore unfolds.

When we analyse the brief account of Salvatore’s life , we find such qualities scattered
along his journey from childhood to fatherhood. Salvatore has the rare quality of goodness
because one glance at his life-history shows that he is loving, carefree, humble, patient
dutiful, responsible childlike, empathic, forgiving, gentle, hardworking, well
mannered, magnanimous, caring, honest and above all has the tendency to do good
despite the hardships he has endured and the unfairness with which he has been
dealt with.

Whether it is his care for his brothers, his duty towards his country, his forgiveness for the
woman who rejected him, his acceptance of another who loved him, his hardworking
nature, his affection for his children and his sheer strength of character, all go into the
making of this quality which sets him apart from his fellow men – the quality of goodness.
And above all, this goodness is tempered with humility. As Maugham explicitly states :

“All I know is that it (goodness) shone in him with a radiance that, if it had not been
unconscious and so humble, would have been to the common run of men hardly bearable “.

In short, he is a man above his circumstances he’s trapped in and the ‘goodness’ which
resides in him refuses to be tempered by the hardships of life.